Greece received some relief on Tuesday after the European Central Bank raised he ceiling of the country’s Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) by 1.1 billion euros, bringing the ceiling to 80 billion in total.

The ECB’s move comes after a Eurogroup meeting on Monday where there was some progress made in negotiations on a cash-for-reform deal between Athens and its creditors.

Meanwhile, there was relief when Greece announced it made its loan installment that was due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. It made the payment of 750 million euros on Monday.

However, Greece took 650 million of the money from its holdings with the IMF. It was just the first in a series of major payments to the IMF

It is highly unusual to use the funds to repay the IMF itself, even though members of the institution are allowed to use the account at their own discretion.

Asked whether Greece’s decision to tap its IMF funds was a cause for alarm, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission vice-president in charge of Eurozone policy, said: “It’s for the experts to look into the issue before I can comment.”

An expert on the IMF’s operations at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, Ted Truman, said:

“It is actually a very sensible thing to do rather than default. The SDR holdings amounted to a “rainy day fund”, he said, “and it’s a rainy day in Athens”.

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